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Category Archives: Religion
BOOKS: “Teachings of the Christian Mystics” ed. by Andrew Harvey
Teachings of the Christian Mystics by Andrew HarveyMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Acquired at Blossom Bookhouse
This book gathers a collection of short writings (mostly paragraph to a few page excerpts as well as a few poems) on mystic Christianity from the time of the Gospels through the twentieth century. While the bulk of the pieces are (if not from scriptures) the work of clergymen and / or theologians, there are some by individuals known elsewise (e.g. poets William Blake and Gerard Manley Hopkins.) The book is arranged somewhat, but not perfectly, chronologically — enough that all the Biblical excerpts are lumped together at the beginning to form about the first quarter of the selections. While there are a number of one-off contributors, there are several pieces from each of: Gregory of Nyssa, the Desert Fathers, Saint Symeon the New Theologian, Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, Saint Teresa of Avila, and Eckhart von Hochheim.
One nice feature of this book is that it does include selections from a wide range of sources (Roman Catholic, Orthodox Catholic, and Protestant) over a range of time periods, and from scriptures both canonical and “apocryphal.” So, there are many varied ideas of the mystical experience and the path thereto. The flipside of this fact is that there doesn’t seem to be a lot of cohesiveness to the collection. It isn’t always clear why Harvey (the editor) thought a given excerpt was representative of mystic teachings versus of mainstream Christianity. There is a substantial introduction, but otherwise the selections are left to speak for themselves.
Still, it was a quick read, dense with insights, and I found — particularly some of the scriptural selections — to be among the most profound statements of Christian philosophy that I’ve seen.
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Preacher Limerick
There once was a preacher with Tourette's
And his case was as bad as it gets.
In times of aplomb,
He'd shout an f-bomb,
Making mourners more than a little upset.
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DAILY PHOTO: Inside Hualien Gangtiangong
Five Wise Lines [April 2024]
Of what use for us is a man who, although he has long practiced philosophy, has never upset anyone?
Diogenes of sinope on Plato, according to themistius
The superstition that we must drive from the Earth is that which, making a tyrant of God, invites men to become tyrants.
Voltaire in On Superstition
The progress of an artist is a continual self-sacrifice, a continual extinction of personality.
T.S. Eliot in Tradition and the Individual talent
What’s the difference between a king and a poor man if they would both end the same bundle of white bones.
Zhuangzi
The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.
Carl sagan (Note: There are variations on this quote that long predate Sagan’s)
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
You live off the crumbs that fall from the festive table of my genius.
Kurban Said in Ali and Nino [Not so much wisdom as a wicked burn]
To roam Giddily and be everywhere, but at home, Such freedom doth a banishment become.
John donne in a Poetic letter to rowland woodward
Lions are not the slaves of those who feed them, it is the feeders, rather, who are the lion’s slaves. For fear is the mark of a slave, and wild beasts make men fearful.
Diogenes the cynic
Tiger Riding for Beginners 